Farmer Appointed University Professor At Harvard

“Paul Farmer is best known to the public as a pioneering humanitarian,” President Drew Faust said in announcing the appointment. “But among scholars he is equally well-known for his research and writing, which have crossed boundaries between the social sciences and biomedical research and married theory and practice to forge a new approach to global health. He is also an outstanding educator with a remarkable capacity to inspire students to focus their minds and their energies on serving the common good.”

The President and Fellows of Harvard College established the University Professorships in 1935 to recognize “individuals of distinction … working on the frontiers of knowledge, and in such a way as to cross the conventional boundaries of the specialties.”

Farmer, whose research focuses on community-based strategies for combating infectious diseases, on health and human rights, and on the role of social inequalities in determining disease distribution and outcomes, becomes the first Kolokotrones University Professor, a chair established through a gift from Wendy and Theo Kolokotrones, M.B.A. ’70.

This program aired on December 16, 2010. The audio for this program is not available.

Rachel ZimmermanTwitterHealth ReporterRachel Zimmerman previously reported on health and the intersection of health and business for Bostonomix.